Re: So when student-athletes unionize and become employees

Dude, I played college football. This idea of the "poor little old football player going to bed hungry every night" is a pure, total, BS narrative. We had it made. I played for a smaller school too, so my points are even amplified to a greater extent (less budget).

College football players do have it easier in the classroom, for the simple fact that most of the teachers want them to succeed and will go further out of their way to make it happen.

If you think that's a plantation, one I willingly signed on a dotted line to join, you're pretty dumb.

What's more like a smoke and mirror show is the degree to which these kids paying their own ways are being misled. I won't even start to tell you the lies sold to me on how my degree could be used, how easy it was to get job placement, and how much money I could expect to make. It wasn't even totally their fault. They sit in classrooms all day and really have no idea what the real world is like. Yet they advise and guide lifelong decisions for 18 year olds. It's wrong.

Then you get stuck with a giant bill and they ask you for money every few months to help the university. Lol.

I'm not advocating for student loan forgiveness, or socializing loan debt, because two wrongs don't make it right. People without degrees shouldn't pay for the ones that do have them. I do sympathize with students though.

Sorry to rant, but everytime I hear someone saying "plantation" or some BS like that, it makes me furious because they never have any idea what it actually like and usually propose some garbage that ends up killing our sport. Once it's gone, which it's on the way, they likely won't see how the decisions that they wanted to change it made it change. They'll just say well we should have done this differently. No. You should have left it the way it was.

Like when someone comes from a crappy country/state and wants everything to be like that country/state law wise. It's like dude you're the exact reason this is getting destroyed.

rhettfla

Hall of Famer [22658]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 11537

Joined: 10/12/14

Dec 20, 2022, 10:18 AM

I agree with a lot of your points, except for the point about degrees. I have seen 2 things make a huge difference in how much the degree helps with job placement. First and foremost is what the degree is in. Both of my children got 4 year degrees in Civil Engineering and went into the construction field. They both got good jobs right out of college and will have their choices of jobs for the rest of their lives. They also both have good work ethics which helps. I have a friend whose daughters both got degrees in Library Science, not at Clemson (yes that is actually a degree program at some universities). I have no idea what they intended to do with that but they couldn’t get a job after 4 years so they continued going to school to get higher degrees that still won’t help them get a job. Their goal is to be librarians at the Library of Congress. I just don’t see there being a lot of availability in that field.
The second thing that definitely makes a difference is where the degree is from. Clemson does an excellent job of helping students get internships and also with job placement at graduation. My daughter and I both graduated from Clemson and utilized the internship program and job placement assistance and had multiple job offers upon graduation. My son graduated from Penn State and I know several NC State graduated and those schools do not provide the assistance in finding internships or for job placement that Clemson does. Penn State basically told my son “you will have a diploma from Penn State and that is all you will need to get a job”. It did work out that way but it was a little more difficult for him to find that first job than it was for my daughter who utilized the assistance offered by Clemson.

I definitely agree student athletes and particularly football players have it easier than “ordinary “ students and now with NIL many of them will have the opportunity to have a head start monetarily over ordinary students when they graduate as well.

I also agreed that college is not for everyone and we should have more trade school type of education available for people who want to work in industries where a college degree isn’t needed. And those jobs should pay good wages but that is a rant for another day.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

So when student-athletes unionize and become employees